By Tom Driscoll, Director of NFU Foundation and Conservation Policy In Fiscal Year 2016, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) issued 29,602 direct loans to farmers and ranchers totaling $2.39 billion. Of those, almost 17,800 were allocated to beginning producers. The proportion of loans to beginning producers is high because in many cases, FSA is the … Read More

By Steven Emmen, NFU Intern As noted in prior Beginning Farmer Forum posts, beginning farmers often times have smaller operations, which means less land and capital. Consequently, they may require hefty loans to get their operations off the ground, but acquiring that amount of money is challenging since they also have shorter production histories and … Read More

By Tom Driscoll, Director of NFU Foundation and Conservation Policy Climate change presents an enormous threat to farming and food security. A 2015 assessment report conducted by the U.S. Global Change Research Program noted that some models project the number of people at risk of undernourishment could grow by as many as 175 million by … Read More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 3, 2017 Contact: Andrew Jerome, 202-314-3106 ajerome@nfudc.org WASHINGTON – The American family farmers and ranchers who grow and raise organic foods and goods for our nation adhere to strict standards – set by the National Organic Program under guidance of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) – that protect the integrity … Read More

By Barbara Patterson, NFU Director of Government Relations Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2010. It will require many producers to comply with new regulations if they grow food for human or animal consumption. The regulations are intended to protect consumers from food-borne illness. Many producers who will be regulated by FSMA … Read More

By Tom Driscoll, Director of NFU Foundation and Conservation Policy The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) found that the percentage of U.S. farms operated by women farmers almost tripled over the past three decades, from five percent in 1978 up to fourteen percent in 2007. This is encouraging news, given the impending transition … Read More

By Adam Pauley, NFU Intern Here on the Climate Column, we’ve been talking about how milder winters due to climate change are contributing to greater pest pressures. Farmers are turning new agricultural methods to mitigate pests without exacerbating other environmental concerns. We’ve discussed a few methods already, including intercropping and crop rotation. Another option is integrated … Read More

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 28, 2017 Contact: Andrew Jerome, 202-314-3106 ajerome@nfudc.org WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate voted down a “skinny repeal” of parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) last night, avoiding the passage of a bill that would have risked access to health care for 16 million people and marketplace stability. In response to … Read More

By Adam Pauley, NFU Intern Last week on the Climate Column, we noted that milder winters caused by climate change are lengthening the lives of frost-sensitive pests, increasing pest pressure on farms. Farmers are implementing new practices to compete with more aggressive pests, but many of the common means of doing so can exacerbate other … Read More